3D Methods for the Anthropological Cultural Heritage

Human remains can tell us the story of single individuals as well as entire populations, and they can be informative on cultural practices. Thus, they are part of our cultural heritage. The management of human remains as cultural heritage must consider the needs of preservation, research, and dissemination. The use of 3D technologies provides advantages in all these fields and helps in mitigating the conflicts among them. While in research the use of 3D technologies is widespread, it is still under-exploited by anthropological and archaeological museums for preservation and dissemination purposes. The availability of virtual collections reduces the necessity of manipulation of the real objects by the researchers and it boosts research while improving preservation strategies. A digital copy of a specimen would preserve the morphological information in case of destructive sampling, such as for molecular and biochemical analyses. Moreover, 3D technologies can be helpful in resolving ethical issues related to the presentation of human remains, which brought many museums to avoid the exhibition of their anthropological collections. Recent releases of low-cost surface laser scanners can facilitate the spread of 3D technologies in the museums and could help in finding new ways of fruition for the anthropological collections, especially in periods of crisis such as those provoked by the recent pandemic events. Here, we present the case of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology from Florence in which different techniques (CT scan, laser scanning, photogrammetry) have been used and documented.